In 1925 as the USN was accepting delivery of the latest creation of the
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, with the Curtiss
F6C Hawk, another company came out with a new engine. Pratt &
Whitney had developed their radial Wasp engine. This engine developed high
horsepower with lightweight. Smaller fighters could be built around this engine,
so more fighters could be carried aboard carriers. Weighing 650 pounds this
air-cooled radial developed over 400 hp. The fact that it was air-cooled saved
even more weight as there was no need for a separate water cooling system as
found in inline engines. This simplified servicing the aircraft and meant that
less spare parts had to be carried aboard ship. Curtiss chose to use this new
engine for their next fighter design for the navy. This was the Curtiss
F7C-1 Seahawk. The Seahawk
also featured fuel tanks on each side of the fuselage. The navy tried the Seahawk
as a land fighter and carrier fighter but in the end only ordered seventeen Seahawks.
All were assigned to Marine Fighting Squadron 9 and served with that unit until
1932. The National Museum of Naval Aviation has had BuNo A7667 since
1990. The Seahawk had a top speed of
155.5mph, a ceiling of 22,100 feet, a range of 355 mils and mounted two .30
machine guns.